As of Thursday, early voting had begun in every one of the 33 states (plus Washington DC) that offer it.

More than 12 million voters have so far cast their votes for the 2014 midterm elections, which is almost double the tally from last week. Why the big jump?

A lot of it has to do with more states getting into their in-person early voting periods, which is the preferred early-voting method for the majority of Democrats.

That also means some earlier Republican gains around the country are diminishing.

But with Thursday’s total early vote tally representing about 63 percent of the total 19 million early voters in the 2010 midterm cycle, there are still plenty of early vote returns we’ll see before Tuesday.